Tuesday 15 May 2012 10.14 EDT
First published on Tuesday 15 May 2012 10.14 EDT

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is filing a $1m countersuit against the New York City hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

The disgraced French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund said in court papers filed Monday that Nafissatou Diallo made a "malicious and wanton false accusation" when she said he assaulted her at the Sofitel in New York a year ago.

The criminal case against Strauss-Kahn was dismissed after prosecutors lost faith in Diallo's credibility. She then filed a civil lawsuit accusing him of assault.

A judge this month rejected Strauss-Kahn's claim that he had diplomatic immunity.

Diallo says Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she arrived to clean his hotel suite. Strauss-Kahn has denied doing anything violent. Diallo's lawyer calls the countersuit a "desperate ploy."

Strauss-Kahn may have to return to New York to face the civil case after the rejection of his immunity claim.

After the allegations were made, Strauss-Kahn was arrested, resigned from the IMF and spent several days behind bars and three months on house arrest before prosecutors dropped the criminal case, saying Diallo had lied about her background and changed her account of what she did after leaving Strauss-Kahn's hotel room.

Diallo's lawyers called Strauss-Kahn's defamation claim an example of the "misogynistic attitude" of a man who now faces preliminary charges of being involved in a hotel prostitution ring in France.

French investigators are studying accusations that Strauss-Kahn may have been involved in a rape during a sex party in a Washington hotel in 2010. Separately, a French writer accused him last year of having tried to rape her during a 2003 interview, an accusation prosecutors said was too old to try.